POP MUSIC REVIEW : ‘Triple Threat’: Loud, Lively and Lame

Bell Biv DeVoe’s show at the Forum on Friday was a noisy, glitzy assault on the senses. With hip-hop beats pounding away with sledgehammer force, and with lights flashing and constant movement everywhere on the stage, you were always verging on sensory overload.

That’s entertainment?

To most of today’s young fans, weaned on music videos, it certainly is. To them, neither exceptional songs nor quality singing are necessary requirements of an outstanding live show. So BBD--and many other of today’s young R&B; stars--can put on a loud, essentially shallow show and thrill these fairly undemanding young audiences.

The trio is the co-headliner on a three-act soul bill known as the “Triple Threat Tour,” featuring singers Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill. The next tour stop is tonight at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego.

Instead of being imaginative, Bell Biv DeVoe relied far too heavily on cheap, sex-appeal gimmicks and audience-participation cliches. These crowd-pleasing tactics, though, did seem to work.

This show suggests that it’s supposed to be a slice of ghetto life, with a stage set that looks as if it was lifted from the inner city of Anytown, U.S.A., with graffiti-covered walls and basketball hoops. The set, part of the sensory barrage, doesn’t figure too much in the songs, but it’s nice to look at.

Ricky Bell, the only member with any real vocal talent, is the designated singer. Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe stick to rap, but they’re hardly great rappers. The reason that “Poison”--the trio’s lone album, which has sold more than 3 million copies--was one of last year’s best albums was primarily due to arrangements and production. The material doesn’t translate that well to a live show, but Friday’s audience--on sensory overload--didn’t seem to notice.

Even with its limitations, however, this was a marked improvement over the trio’s clumsy, amateurish performance in last summer’s “Budweiser Superfest” show at the Rose Bowl.

Keith Sweat’s middle set cleverly pushed the audience’s buttons, but, again, had little substance. Sweat’s success is mystifying considering his annoying, bleating voice and his clumsy movements. At best he’s a routine singer, belonging in the lower echelon of today’s crop.

One song--the sizzling “I Want Her,” from his first album--really made his career. None of his other material is remotely in that league. More than anything, the fans seemed to be reacting to Sweat’s sex appeal and the tantalizing grooves laid down by his band.

Songs like “Merry Go Round” and “I’ll Give All My Love to You” are formula R&B.; Some big-production touches, like numbers featuring lots of dancers, were poorly intergrated into the show.

Johnny Gill--like Bell Biv DeVoe a member of New Edition--has more vocal talent than any of the other artists on the bill, and there were some stirring moments in his opening set. But there were dry stretches too. Sometimes he seemed a little lost as he gamely tried to fit laudable but simple skills into an arena-type show.

At times he came on like Bobby Brown, whom he replaced in New Edition. Flash, however, doesn’t suit Gill. One of the best young balladeers in the business, he’s more like a young Luther Vandross.

Gill should be playing small theaters, backed by a small band and without dancers--an unnecessary distraction for someone who can carry a show on singing prowess alone.